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Industry connections

Gain valuable and hands-on experience towards the future career of your choice.

For some degrees, such as medicine, engineering and architecture, you’ll be required to complete professional placements, but we also provide the chance for you to gain work experience, even if your qualification doesn’t call for it. With a long list of contacts and partnerships, we’ll help place you in your chosen industry, where you can begin to put theory into practice in a real-world environment.

Placements for credit

For-credit placements or practicums are arranged as part of your degree. They’re usually one day a week in a supervised workplace, run between 80 to 100 hours in total, and can be everything from getting a feel for a legitimate working environment to participating in live projects. These practicums are available through Arts or Commerce degrees, and for postgraduate students as Personal Development Practicums. If you’re a Science student, you can get involved in practicums through Work Integrated Learning (WIL) programs.

Service learning units are another way to gain experience. These are unpaid work with not-for-profit, community or government services, and some can earn you academic credit as well as the chance to put your degree skills to use. The McCusker Centre for Citizenship also offers this kind of learning.

Not-for-credit experience

If your degree doesn’t award credit for work experience, you can still take advantage of our network of industry connections to find uncredited placements, usually as internships or holiday work, for a set number of hours.

Guild volunteering

Guild volunteering gets you off campus and into the real world to start making a difference. Broaden your mind, meet new people and learn new skills in an area you’re interested in. You may also find that some volunteering is eligible for your supplementary academic transcript.

Public sector
City of Perth, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Department of Commerce

NGOsIn areas including animals, children and youth and disability, human rights and social justice, Indigenous issues, mental health, and women’s issues

AssociationsEngineers Australia, The Law Society of Western Australia, Clinical Legal Education and Enhanced Law Access Program

Research collaborations

At UWA we seek innovative solutions to the world’s greatest challenges. From the smallest known particles, to the farthest reaches of the universe, there are no limits when you pursue what the world tells you is impossible.

We’re part of leading collaborations such as the Group of Eight and the Matariki Network of Universities, and are one of just two Australian universities to belong to the Worldwide Universities Network of research-led institutions.

Innovation Quarter

At the UWA Innovation Quarter (UWA IQ) we form teams from across the University to devise answers to problems that impact on the economy, society and the environment. Our research goal is to make the world a better place, whether it’s at a local, national or global level.

Our teams

are led by researchers who are internationally recognised as among the best in their fields

make the most of high-quality research facilities

showcase world-class research

employ top undergraduate (honours) and postgraduate students

As a student, there are many ways you can get involved with these groundbreaking research projects.

Through the Co-Operative Education for Enterprise Development (CEED), undergraduates and postgraduates from any discipline can add their skills to research projects run by organisations outside the University.

If you’re a research student or working on postgraduate coursework, there’s the chance to be involved with the Transdisciplinary Service Learning and Design practicum. This teams you with staff not just from UWA but from outside institutions and regions, with the aim of collaborating on complex issues involving everything from infrastructure and politics, to cultural and economic issues.

As a PhD student, you can collaborate on a six-week project with an industry partner, through iPREPWA, which supports research teams across a range of disciplines.